Honeymoon, Nov 16, 2012

FRIDAY NOV 16

WIW: grey turtleneck, muted brown trousers.

WRW: diagonal check shirt, purple sweater.

The night before we made a short bullet list of the things we needed to do on our last day in Paris. First off was breakfast, obviously. Then we took the train over to Sainte-Chapelle.

RICHARD [reading from the brochure]: “Saint Louis built Sainte-Chapelle to house the Holy Crown, a fragment of the True Cross and other relics he had acquired from Baldwin II of Constantinople.”

ME: Which means he got it on Canal Street.

RICHARD: On Le EBay. Of the Middle Ages.

Notre Dame was right around the corner, so we went there too. Incredible stained glass windows, and jeez, it is huge. We thought about going up to the second floor, but there was a line and it was cold.

Oh, and the most adorable little Asian couple came in their wedding clothes and had their pictures taken in front of the cathedral. Her gown was sleeveless and I did not envy her being so bare in that wind and cold, but you know, those Asian women are fierce. I took the cutest picture of them, you can see Richard in the picture taking their picture on his iPhone (the same thing I did at the Venus de Milo).

We took the train to Montmartre and looked around for a place to eat, found a little bistro where Richard had an omelet and I had a salad with tomatoes and walnuts, with warm goat cheese crostini on the side. Everything was delicious. I also had a hot chocolate, which tasted like Swiss Miss Instant Cocoa - - yodel lay hee hoo! - - but it hit the spot all the same.

We walked around looking for Sacré Coeur, finally found it. Clearly we were taking the funicular up to it. The church was very sweet, of course they were having mass, this place is probably always having mass.

The choir was a group of nuns. Richard said, “The last time I saw so many nuns I was playing crap.”

Home for a couple hours and we packed. Always a sad thing to do at the end of a trip.

Our final stop was one of Richard’s favorite neighborhoods, the Marais. For our last meal in town we decided to use the method that brought us so much luck: we walked around and found a place that looked good. It was called Café Quincampe, named after the street it was on, the rue Quincampoix. This was another of those greatest meals of my life. We were seated in the back room, which couldn’t have been more charming. Our waiter was wonderful. I told him right off that we were from New York and would have a lot of questions. One of the starters was a velouté of vegetables, and I asked him to explain what a velouté is. He said, “C’est comme une soupe [it’s like a soup]…[short pause, then in English] but more creamy.” Sounded good to me, and it was amazing! Tasted like it was mostly cauliflower, a really gorgeous soup. They gave me a wooden spoon to eat it with, which was a first for me, and it only added to the experience. Richard had the gravlax for a starter, which came with a little salad and some sort of spicy green business as a garnish.

Richard’s main course was the shrimp risotto, which he said was very good. My main course was the Assiette Quincampoise (the Quincampoise Dish) - - gravlax and smoked haddock, served on a bed of salad greens, with cubed kiwi sprinkled over it and julienned zucchini on the side. Also a little pot of something sweet and frothy on the side, I have no idea what it was, but it worked real well to counteract the saltiness of the haddock. The whole thing was spectacular. We each had a glass of champagne with the main course, and a slice of the fondant du chocolat for dessert, a warm soft chocolate cake swimming in crème anglaise. Unbelievably delicious. Such a lovely place, such a special meal, we’re sending our Parisian friends there, also anyone visiting Paris.

Next day...